Noein: To Your Other Self

Plot summary

Fifteen years in the future, a violent pan-dimensional war is taking place between the two dominant "time-spaces" of the universe: La'cryma (a possible future of our own world) and Shangri-La (another possible dimension fifteen years after ours intent on the destruction of all space and time). The key to stopping Shangri'la's invasion and saving reality is a mysterious object known as the "Dragon Torc" (竜のトルク, Ryū no Toruku). La'cryma's elite military force, known as the "Dragon Cavalry", is sent through space and time to find it.

In one possible present, twelve-year-old Haruka and her friend Yū are contemplating running away from home when they meet a member of the Dragon Cavalry named Karasu, who is a possible Yū from the future. La'cryma believes that Haruka is the Dragon Torque, but Karasu vows to protect her rather than sacrifice her for his home dimension. Other than the Dragon Cavalry, Haruka is targeted by the mysterious Noein, the entity behind Shangri'la who is intent on bringing her into his timespace to end all universes.

Noein is set in the Japanese port city of Hakodate, Hokkaido. The animators took great care to recreate a lot of the details of Hakodate like its buildings, port, and environments in order to make it look exactly like the actual city.

Concept

Noein employs a conception of time as a dimension that resonates with other "timespaces." Haruka's Dragon Torc, which affects this relationship, takes the shape of an Ouroboros.

Noein makes use of several interpretations of quantum physics, particularly Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, which views the universe as branching off into an infinity of possible states of varying probability. It also draws from the Copenhagen Interpretation, which suggests that an observer or measurement is important in determining the decoherency of the probability. In the anime, Haruka possesses "supreme observer" status in the multiverse, thus enabling her to determine the sole outcome of an event just by "observing" one of the possible futures of the event. These themes also underpin an existential ideology that permeates the anime.

In one episode, Uchida candidly explains to her bodyguard Kōriyama the paradox of Schrödinger's cat, whereby a cat is ambiguously suspended (exists in a "superposition") between life and death until observed. This act of measurement forces the cat's existence to "collapse" into one of the two possible states. She also mentions Albert Einstein's famous remark, "God does not play dice."

While the Many-Worlds Interpretation implies a divergence of timespaces, the anime also includes a possible future in which timespaces converge, an end the series' chief antagonist, Noein, works to accomplish.

Name

The word "noein" means "to shake" or "to tremble" in Coptic, while in Greek "noein" (νοεῖν) means "to perceive", "to observe" or "to think."

Distribution

Home media releases

Manga Entertainment originally licensed the anime in the North America and UK/Ireland territories, while Madman Entertainment has licensed it for Australia and New Zealand. The series was released on a total of six discs. In 2008, Manga re-release the series in a complete box set. On July 25, 2015, Funimation announced their license to Noein and re-released the series on Blu-ray on January 12, 2016. Anime Limited have acquired the series for a UK release.

Music

The two Original Soundtrack are composed by Hikaru Nanase

Opening Theme:

Ending Theme: